He felt it is essential to remove infrastructure bottlenecks, reduce bureaucratic obstacles, and improve decision-making and transparency.

"Canadian companies have experienced frustrations in efforts to win contracts for large projects in power and telecommunications where technically sound and low priced bids have lost out to technically suspect, higher priced bids," Sproule explained.

Stronger initiatives are required from the private and government levels to improve the investment climate in Bangladesh by tackling these problems, he observed.

The Canadian envoy was speaking at the monthly luncheon meeting of Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

In this age of globalisation, investors are not reluctant to shift their investment destination when they face any kind of obstacle, and governments and the private sectors must be quick to respond and adapt, Sproule said.

More and more Canadian are showing interest in the growing telecommunicatons, IT as well as in the energy and power sectors, Sproule said. Canadian companies are recognised for high quality products and services, the high commissioner added.

Canada's biggest development cooperation programme is in Bangladesh and economic ties between the two countries are diversifying and strengthening, he noted.

The decision of the Canadian government to grant open market access to goods from Bangladesh, which took effect on January 1, 2003, significantly increased its exports to Canada, he said. The impact is a 198 percent increase in Bangladesh's export to Canada in just two years.

At the same time, Canadian exports to Bangladesh declined by 11 percent in 2003 and the latest figures suggest exports from Bangladesh in 2004 leaped 44 percent from 2003, he said. Bangladesh is a huge market since its population is more than four times the size of Canada.

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals MDGs), Sproule said. It has succeeded in becoming agriculturally self-sustaining, in reducing its birth rate, improving literacy rates, and in empowering women through employment and education.

Ficci President Mahbub Jamil told the meeting Canada granted duty- and quota-free access of all Bangladeshi products except diary, poultry and egg to its market as a gesture of goodwill despite the fact that Bangladesh imports much less from than it exports to that country.

The investment and trade regimes of Bangladesh are by far the best in the region, macro-economic fundamentals are sound and incentive package for investment in general and foreign direct investment in particular is attractive, he mentioned.

Its only shortcomings are in the areas of infrastructure and governance. But a dispassionate observer could see that things are improving gradually, although very slowly, the Ficci president observed.

Private Canadian investments in Bangladesh at the moment are not that big. Only significant private investments from Canada are Bata Shoe Company and Niko Resources, he said.

Prospective Canadian investors could exploit the investment opportunities on offer in Bangladesh and come forward with more investments, Jamil added. He said Ficci is ready to offer its services for the purpose if needed.